


Are We Human, or Are We Animal?

by burntotears



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Feels, Gen, Pack Dynamics, Research, Spoilers, Wolf Pack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-22
Updated: 2012-09-22
Packaged: 2017-11-14 19:17:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/518630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burntotears/pseuds/burntotears
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the arrival of the Alpha pack, Stiles had decided that it was about time he learned more about werewolves.  Except there weren’t books lying around in the library explaining the dynamics of werewolf packs and why their Alphas thought it necessary to shove him against walls to get their point across, but there were books about <em>wolves</em>, which had to be the next best thing, right?  He needed to talk with a werewolf to get the gritty details.  However he wasn't certain he would like all the answers he'd receive.</p><p>{ Spoilers through Season 2 }</p>
            </blockquote>





	Are We Human, or Are We Animal?

**Author's Note:**

> This was my entry for the Teen Wolf fanfiction contest. I suppose if you squint it could be considered a pre-slash Sterek, but really it was just something I was interested in and wanted to get out on paper and I like how it turned out, though obviously I would have liked to have had more space to do it in. Still, it was fun to do.

With the arrival of the Alpha pack, Stiles had decided that it was about time he learned more about werewolves. Except there weren’t books lying around in the library explaining the dynamics of werewolf packs and why their Alphas thought it necessary to shove him against walls to get their point across, but there were books about _wolves_ , which had to be the next best thing, right?

So Stiles had spent the last couple of weeks pouring over books and articles on the Internet about wolves and wolf packs and how they interacted, what they ate, how they slept, and even how they preferred to urinate. All of these things had to be significant _somehow_ , and the more he read, the more he believed that it was.

He needed to talk with a werewolf to get the gritty details. Yet the more questions he asked Scott, the more he realized that Scott was utterly useless at being a werewolf. Scott hadn’t spent enough time in a pack to know what any of it meant, so Stiles had to talk to someone who would actually have some knowledge - and he sure as hell wasn’t going to ask Derek, so he went to Isaac.

“I know that wolves communicate through audible, somatic, and olfactory means. You guys have heightened senses as humans too, obviously, but does that mean when you wolf-out that you can like - smell, hear, and sense each other even better? Are you more aware of each other when you’re wolfed-out than you are as humans?” Stiles asked Isaac one afternoon inside of the train depot, crammed inside of the rusty train car the pack used as a guest meeting area. Really they just used it as a place to make Stiles sit when he stopped by, because what guests did they actually have these days besides Stiles?

Isaac looked thoughtful for a moment before he answered. “I mean, we are pretty aware of one another, whether in human or wolf-form. It’s easier with other werewolves to know how they’re feeling than it is with just a human, because there is a smell and a stance that he has that humans don’t know how to appropriate.”

Stiles sat up, taking interest in that concept. “So you aren’t able to tell how I’m feeling?”

“Anyone can tell how you feel, Stiles,” Isaac rolled his eyes incredulously. “I meant a human who isn’t bouncing off the walls 24/7.”

“Hey! I’m not - okay, point taken. So you can still read each other well in human-form, gotcha. But is it easier in wolf-form? Does it make it easier to like - send signals telepathically,” Stiles mimicked zap-rays coming from his forehead, “when you’re working together in wolf-form?”

Isaac groaned. “We can’t speak telepathically. But yes, in a sense, we can communicate better when we’re in wolf-form than as humans.”

“That’s so _awesome_ ,” Stiles said, awed by this. He wasted no time jumping to the next question. “So, do you guys pee on things?”

“ _What?_ ” Isaac gaped, taken aback.

“Marking territory, staking your claim? Does Derek go around and pee on trees all over Beacon Hills to tell other werewolves that this place is his?” Stiles’ eyes lit up with realization as he asked with excitement, “Is _that_ why there haven’t been any wolves in California for so long? Does it work on wolves too?”

“We don’t pee on things, you idiot! We aren’t exactly like wolves!” Isaac scrubbed his hands over his face in exasperation.

“You’re still a lot _like_ wolves, so I need to know the similarities and differences! It’s for the good of Stiles-kind, dude!” He nodded enthusiastically, and then plowed on. “So your pack - you should have two Alphas: your Alpha and his mate. Has Derek talked to you about his mate yet?”

Isaac stood up then. “Okay, I’m done. If you want to know about Derek’s sex life, you need to talk to him!” He stalked out of the train car and Stiles tripped after him.

“Isaac! I can’t talk to Derek about this! Are you _insane?_ ”

. . .

Stiles really needed to talk to Derek. Obviously he was scared of him, but Derek was the only source that was going to give him some answers. He had lived in a pack his entire life, so he’d know a lot, if not everything. But he was _Derek_ , and well - enough said right there.

“What do you want, Stiles?” was the friendly way in which Derek greeted him upon his arrival.

Stiles bit his lip and launched into a near ceaseless rhetoric. “I’ve been researching werewolves - what with the Alpha pack being here and all - but there’s not a whole lot to go on so I started with wolves instead and I wanted to ask you about some of the stuff that I’ve found. I asked Scott, but you know that he’s pretty useless since he’s only been part of a pack for about two seconds and Isaac answered a few things but then got all huffy with me so really, that just leaves you and Peter. But if it’s a toss-up between you and a guy who has attempted to kill all of my friends at some point, I’m going to go with the lesser of the psychotically violent Hales.”

Derek shared his award-winning ‘Derek Glare,’ which conveyed enough annoyance to get the point across.

“I said _lesser!_ And not quite as homicidal! I mean, unless it’s absolutely warranted! C’mon, dude, I really need to know this stuff if I’m going to survive without the super strength and enhanced abilities like all of you guys have! Give me a break!” He really hoped that had not sounded as whiney as he thought it did.

“What do you want to know?” Derek asked, sighing with a look of acquiescence.

“Well, the Alpha pack - how does that work? There’s only supposed to be an Alpha pair in a pack. Is it just some big Alpha orgy or something?”

Derek looked like he was already regretting his decision to agree to answer anything. “The Alphas aren’t all having sex with each other, Stiles,” he replied exasperated.

“Alright, then what’s the deal? With regular wolves if other Alphas tried to approach a pack they’d rip each other apart!” Stiles thought about some of the information he’d read about wolves fighting for dominance with the Alpha.

“That’s because we are _werewolves_ , not wolves,” Derek sighed and sat down, apparently resigned to the idea that the sooner he answered, the sooner he’d be done with Stiles’ interest in this. “Alpha packs are rare, but they exist. We realized long ago that the pack dynamic made us stronger and with an Alpha being the strongest of the three werewolves, theoretically wouldn’t an entire pack of Alphas be unstoppable? So the Alpha pack became an abstraction, an experiment, and eventually a reality. They are a volatile thing, because packs aren’t meant to have more than an Alpha pair, and inside of an Alpha pack there is no true Alpha, so it’s just chaos - they all want things to go their own way. But the power they imbibe from each other is unimaginable, and they really are almost invincible. The pack will eventually destroy itself, because it’s too unstable without those checks and balances that the Alpha, Beta, and Omega provide one another in a normal pack structure.”

Stiles could use more information like this. Anything he could get about the Alpha pack would bring him one step closer to knowing how to defend against - and ultimately defeat - them. The more he knew, the better off they would all be - or at least, that’s how he felt. “If they are going to destroy themselves, can’t we just wait them out? Let nature take its course and allow them to collapse internally?”

“We could, but we’d be dead by the time it happens. They can still do an irrevocable amount of damage in the time they have as a pack. It’s not as simple as you think.”

Stiles gaped. “Oh.” So much for the easy way out. He should know by now that nothing with these guys was ever _easy_. “Do you think that will happen to us?” He asked before he could stop himself.

“We’ll be ready. Leave the Alpha pack to us, Stiles.”

Yeah, fat chance of that. Good luck keeping Stiles from getting involved. Besides, even when he didn’t try to get involved, he somehow still ended mixed up in everything. Didn’t Derek know that by now? “So wolves are naturally distrustful of other wolves - is that the same for werewolves? Is that why you don’t trust any of us?” he blurted, not thinking that this could possibly be perceived as a more personal question than it was meant to be.

Derek’s body grew tense and he frowned and made a noise that was probably a growl, but it was low in the back of his throat so Stiles couldn’t be entirely certain. “We don’t share everything in common with wolves.”

“Right,” Stiles said, voice cracking a little. He decided it was best to steer away from that question altogether. “You said there was still the Alpha pair, yeah? It’s not just the one Alpha, it’s him and his mate?”

The werewolf did not look pleased with where this question was going. “Yes.”

“So do they have to have a mate or is that just an option or - I mean, in wolves it’s for breeding, but werewolves can infect humans with the werewolf gene, so you don’t necessarily have to have children to expand your pack. It seems like you wouldn’t really need to have the Alpha pair like you would in a wolf pack. _You_ guys don’t have an Alpha pair, so...” he probably shouldn’t have mentioned that, should he?

“It’s not required, but it still happens.”

Stiles nodded. “So whoever the Alpha’s mate is ends up being an Alpha in the pack too?”

“Yes,” Derek replied easily.

“What if that’s a human?” Derek gave him a weird look and Stiles sputtered and added, “I mean like with Scott and Allison!”

Derek was quiet for a while, like he was thinking about something else entirely. Stiles wondered if he had had a connection with a human that he was considering. Finally he replied, “That doesn’t usually happen.”

“What do you mean?”

“If it is a human, they don’t usually stay human.”

Stiles gulped. "There's never been a case where they stayed human?"

"Not that I know of," Derek replied, his voice a little quieter.

Stiles wasn’t sure what to say to that. Even though Scott and Allison had broken up, Scott was determined that they would be together in the future. If that was true, did that mean Allison would ultimately have to take the bite - and survive it - to actually become his mate? And what about Lydia? If she was immune then what did - no, he couldn’t even let himself think about all of the ‘what if’s.’ There _had_ to be another way. It had to be possible, Derek just wasn’t cultured enough or wasn’t willing to _try_. Stiles wasn’t going to see all of his human friends offer themselves up to death just so that they could have a chance at being with the people that they loved. He’d find another way.

He muttered under his breath, “That isn’t right,” before he realized he was saying it. It might have been quiet, but Derek could hear him.

“We don’t make anyone do it unwillingly,” Derek said after a while. 

Stiles’ mouth dropped and he was irrationally angered by Derek’s words. “So what - you just expect that any human that falls in love with you - that _you_ fall in love with - is just going to willingly want the bite? Is going to risk the possibility of _death_ just to become your mate? Is that seriously how you guys _think?_ And you would actually be willing to put someone you love through _possible death_ just to fulfill your archaic ideals of how proper werewolf clans operate? That is just - that is asinine!”

While Derek didn’t necessarily look cowed, he did look taken aback by the ferocity of Stiles’ opinion on the subject. He didn’t speak right away; he seemed to be weighing his words more carefully than Stiles had ever seen him do before, and finally he said in a low and almost apologetic voice, “It might sound manipulative, but you’ve seen yourself how difficult it is for a human to live in the world alongside werewolves - it’s just easier for them to take the bite. And you can’t stop them from making that choice for themselves, Stiles.”

Stiles stood up as he felt his eyes prick and that was enough for him to know he needed to get away from this conversation. “Yes, I can! I can keep you from corrupting the rest of us like you’ve already done to Isaac! Like you warped Boyd and Erica - _oh_ , and look how well _that_ worked out for them! No, I won’t let that happen to anyone else! I’ll find another way and I’ll find the cure and I’ll fix Scott and he and Allison will be fine and Lydia... I’ll talk sense into Lydia, somehow! You’re not using people’s love to destroy them, Derek, that’s _sick!_ ” 

He had to leave, because he wasn’t even sure what he was screaming about or accusing Derek of now, but whatever it was, he definitely was not okay with it.

. . .

“You still want to find a cure, right?” Stiles asked Scott a couple of days later after he’d had some time to cool down, and of course do more research.

Scott looked away from the TV screen where they had been playing a video game, hitting pause on the controller. He gave Stiles a quizzical look and answered, “Of course I do, man. More than anything. I mean, when I think about all the things that came between me and Allison, it’s all been because of my being a werewolf and if I weren’t then it would just fix all of that and then there’s my mom and all the problems it’s brought for her...”

Stiles nodded, accepting this answer. “I still think we can find it and I’m not giving up, I swear, but say that we don’t find a cure. I’ve been researching wolves, right? And I talked to Isaac and Derek some and... Scott, if the only way for you and Allison to be together was for her to become a werewolf, would you be okay with that?”

Scott didn’t hesitate to answer, “ _What?_ No! I would never be okay with that, Stiles! I didn’t want this for myself and I wouldn’t want it for her either - and besides, she could _die!_ I wouldn’t want any of you to ever take the bite!”

Stiles smiled sadly at that, remembering the night when he had been offered the bite and considered briefly what his life would have been like had he decided to accept it and how Scott would have reacted had he lived through it. He shook his head of that and proffered a hand to Scott for a bro grip. “Thanks, dude,” he said as Scott grasped his hand. “It means - just thanks.”

Scott smiled. “No problem.”

 

After Scott had left, Stiles went downstairs to grab a pop from the fridge, finding his dad at the table pouring over case files. “Hey Dad,” he said as he passed by the dining room on his way to the kitchen. 

“Son,” the sheriff replied, not looking up from his work.

Stiles inched back toward the dining room with the soda can in hand, hovering in the doorway. “Dad, can I ask you something?”

Sheriff Stilinski looked up expectantly and nodded.

“If your friend wanted to do something that you knew was extremely important to them - something they would tell you they can’t be talked out of - but you also knew it wasn’t good for them to do it, would you still stop them, even if it meant them hating you for it?”

The sheriff was quiet for a moment as he considered that and finally he replied, “Yes, son, I think that I would. If I truly knew that it was going to be bad for them, even though it might cost me their friendship, I would still do whatever was best for my friend’s safety and health, because I have that responsibility as their friend.”

Stiles nodded and gave him a small smile. “Yeah, okay. Okay, thanks, Dad,” he nodded again and began edging out of the room.

“Stiles? Something I should know about?” his dad called after him.

“Oh! Uh, no, I was just - I was just thinking. Y’know, being weird, I guess,” he forced a smile onto his face and nodded again, his neck beginning to feel uncomfortable from the constant up-and-down movement. “Nothing to worry about. Thanks, Dad!”

He turned tail and hopped up the stairs two at a time, taking a deep breath when he was in the sanctity of his room again. His dad had confirmed what he had already known himself. Whatever this Alpha pack spelled for Beacon Hills, the turmoil that was already brewing inside of the town might be just as unstable as their pack’s integrity. If Stiles didn’t do something soon, they wouldn’t need to worry about the Alpha pack anymore, because Beacon Hills would have already destroyed itself from the inside. 

Stiles had to believe that his force of will was strong enough, because as a human it was all that he had. He could save them, he just needed to figure out the right place to start.

\- fin -


End file.
